My mom and I teamed up in the kitchen again and decided to make the best of the extra chicken from our 4th of July Bar-b-que and made a chicken salad to end ALL chicken salads. No, for real…lol. Ideally, this chicken would’ve been grilled but we had waaaay too much meat and waaay too small of a grill for these breasts to make the cut. (We literally had to make 5 rounds of food to accomodate the 4 meats, corn and mushrooms)

• 4 chicken breasts, 3/4 inch diced (Bone-in and with skin is the flavor preference but I had boneless skinless and they were great!)
• 1 1/2 to 2 c. celery, diced
• 1 c. cranberries
• 1 1/2 Fiji apples, diced
• 1 c. walnuts, chopped
• 3 tbsp. tarragon, chopped
• 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 c. mayo
• salt
• pepper

 Season breasts with salt and pepper and drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil on each piece. Roast in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into preferred bite sizes. I diced but you can shred if you like. Here is where YOUR tastes come into play. We like a lot of sweetness coupled with a little tartness. We like crunchiness coupled with a little softness. We don’t like our salads too wet but what’s the point of you have to put mayo on the sandwich bread? I said all that to say that you’re going to have to become a bit of a scientist for a moment. So with “mise en place” (or everything in place) start with adding the chicken to the bowl. Add half of the dry measurements listed above to the chicken. Follow with a 1/2 c. of mayo. Taste. Add as you wish or what you wish. The end result should be to your specifications because if you came to my table….it would be to mine. lol.

To serve: I used to slices of fresh Italian bread with Muenster cheese from the deli. ENJOY!

 Variations: canned chicken breasts, red onions, eggs, grapes, pecans, crackers, toast points, pita pockets, etc.

How to Boil an Egg

 Yes, it is trickier than you would think…well, you should know because I am sure you have ALL had horrible boiled eggs masked as appetizing devil eggs. Eggs are called nature’s perfect food, good fat, good protein and portion. Perfect. At least it will be if you follow the tips below.

The eggs should be fresh but not too fresh. The fresher the egg, the harder to peel. It’s kinda hard to tell because there is no way of knowing if all the eggs in your carton were laid on the same day…quite unlikely even. I would suggest buying them 2 days before your event if at all possible.

 Cool them at room temperature before boiling. Room temp eggs are less likely to crack.

 Place in pan in a single layer and cover with water by 1 inch. This will ensure even cooking times for the eggs. NO SALT! It increases the boiling point…but you knew that already.

 Bring the water to JUST a boil. I mean it! The second you see a boil, remove the eggs from the stove and cover for 17 minutes. TRUST ME!! THIS WORKS! SET THE TIMER….17 minutes EXACTLY! (This is for large eggs, use 20 minutes for jumbo). You ever had green yolks? Had eggs that were too rubbery? Cracked and spouting little underwater egg titties? That’s because you boiled the hellouttadem!! J It’s going to be hard to do, I know. I knew this trick for 2 years before I gained the courage to go for it, but I did and it has been marvelous ever since.

 Drain them and place them in cool water with ice cubes (ice bath) for at least 10 minutes. This stops the cooking process (refer to trouble with overcooked eggs above) and it helps to separate the egg from its shell thereby making peeling easier. Another trick for peeling is to crack them in the water and peel them under running water.

FOR DEVIL EGGS:

Lie them on their side for a day.  The yolk will then center itself so you have it directly in the middle of the white. No more off centered deviled eggs. (I’d JUST bought my eggs prior to the pics so ummm…yeah. Lol)

 Make at least 2 extra eggs.  This way, if you do have a little trouble with one (rip the whites, have one that is all nasty looking and raggedy etc.) you’ll have a back up. AND, you’ll have a sampler for the kitchen buzzards that tend to come around when you’re cooking.

Okay, so me and my big mouth started talking trash (which I do not do on the regular,lol) about how fine I am and going to be when the “Ladies of the Loop” and myself take our very first Girls’ Vacay later this year. Please don’t stalk us but it is in July to be exact, lol. Anyway, I am forced to “lighten up” in every sense of the term here on fiercefoodie.com. No, this will not become a weight-loss blog but I think it would be great to showcase some fierce, healthier alternatives for a few posts….with a FF spin on them of course. We’re still negotiating the terms of the bet, aka the “Fiercer Challunge” (yeah, that’s how it’s spelled) but I’m thinking we should let the locals decide who did their thing in the gym. (Don’t tell them but when I was last there…they loved the thickness so I think I have a lil bit of an edge, lol) So, if you have any ideas, recipes, foods you’d like to see in an edible form (lol) spiced up, tips or wanna get in on this bet….HOLLA AT ME! You know where I’ll be…IN THE KITCHEN.

As promised, I explored the options of keeping the “vegan” recipe vs. adding an egg or two to fluff it out a bit. For the experiment, I bought a box cake mix and I measured it out and it was 4 cups. The batter in the original recipe measured 1 1/3 c exactly. Since the 4 cup box mix called for 3 eggs…… after using 4 sheets of paper, a calculator and Greg, the calculus genius in me deduced that MY recipe therefore called for 1 egg. : )

Here are the results vs the original. Don’t get me wrong, BOTH were delicious but aesthetically, the second was more pleasing to me. See for yourself below. (Also, you can find the recipe in an earlier post)

Before (egg)

After (egg)

Okay, I cannot think of any other way to put this but….BLACK PEOPLE DO NOT MAKE CASSEROLES, lol. No, I am not the type to make generalizations but as far as I am concerned, it is a mere fact. While channel surfing the other night (because I’d never admit to purposely staying on the program) I came across The Wendy Williams Show as she released the day-breaking news that there was a pumpkin crop shortage that affected Thanksgiving this year. She went on to point out that it went unnoticed in the black community because we simply did not eat pumpkin pie and that the sweet potato was the crop of choice for “our” pies. Read the rest of this entry »

My hubby, the movie buff (go ahead ask him anything…anything I tell you) came across this list on MutantShorts.wordpress.com , a site dedicated to filmmakers and their short films. (Looks pretty cool…love the layout)

Here’s their 5 best…

1. JURASSIC PARK. The scene with the raptors.

Raptors in the Kitchen.
Just because a dinosaur is smaller, doesn’t make it any less scary. Two kids, Tim and Lex, are trapped in the very modern and shiny Jurassic Park kitchen, trying their best to outwit a pair of hungry raptors. In a situation like this, you make the most of your kitchen utensils.

2. PULP FICTION. Vincent Dies.

Butch is ready and waiting for Vincent.

Hopefully this is no major spoiler, given that PF has become part of cinema history. Butch (Bruce Willis) pops back to his flat to retrieve his precious gold watch, when a case of the munchies has him preparing pop tarts in his tiny kitchen. Suddenly he spots a submachine gun belonging to Vincent (John Travolta) on the countertop, and realises he’s not alone in the flat. Vincent exits the bathroom only to have Butch fire at him from the kitchen area.

3. ANNIE HALL. Lobsters!

Alvy, Annie and the lobster.
Alvy Singer, Annie Hall, and their attempt to cook some baby lobsters leads to panic in the kitchen, and Alvy hoping that buttersauce and a nutcracker might be enough to scare a lobster out of his hiding place behind their fridge.

4. GREMLINS. Battle in the Kitchen.

Gremlins coming to a sticky end.

A microwave and a food mixer are two gruesome ways to kill the gremlins in your kitchen, as Billy Peltzer’s mother finds out when she encounters three of the critters spawned from her son’s cute pet, Gizmo.

5. KILL BILL. Vernita Green.

Vernita plans her attack.
The first name on The Bride’s hitlist happens to be Vernita Green, and when The Bride herself lands on Vernita’s suburban doorstep, ready for a fight, it eventually leads to the kitchen. Vernita calmly makes her attacker a mug of coffee, feeling safe in the knowledge that she has a gun stowed in the box of cornflakes.

I can only think of one other kitchen scene and that was in “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins” starring Martin Lawrence, Monique, Mike Epps, Cedric the Entertainer. In that kitchen scene,  MONIQUE is ranting about the uncleanliness of pet owners and Bianca’s dog being there. However, she is saying this all WHILE hypocritically having her  ”crawls”  on the kitchen table as she polishes her toenails. If you want a bit of useless information, “crawls”  is a term coined by a friend of mine (and I use that term very loosely) to “affectionately” describe my feet.  (Don’t laugh, he ain’t funny) 

Maybe you have some better suggestions. Comments welcome below.